Frank X. Feger 1895-1950

FEGER, LAVELL, VAN CURA, CUCKLANZ

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 6/21/2011 at 22:42:30

Frank Feger Killed in Car Wreck
Vehicles Collide at Intersection
Frank Feger, 56, of Terril was killed last night in a traffic accident at 8 o’clock at an intersection of gravel roads five miles NE of Terril, one miles NE of Terril, one mile south of an intersection where his brother John was killed Jan. 2.

Riding with Frank at the time of the accident were his brother Carl, 47, and George Cucklanz, 17, stepson of another brother, Henry, also of Terril.

The three were returning to Terril from Estherville where they had been helping with thrashing at the farm of Walter Feger of Estherville, a brother, when the car Frank was driving collided with one driven by Charles Bartlett of Milford.

Carl apparently was not injured seriously, sustaining lacerations, bruises and friction burns about the body, legs and chest. He was admitted to Holy Family hospital last night. It was suspected he might be suffering from a fractured rib since his chest was swelling.

Young Cucklanz suffered no apparent injury.

There are parallels between this accident and the one in which John Feger was killed last January. In the January accident, William Cucklanz, brother of George, was riding in the car with his stepfather. John Feger had married Mrs. Dora Cucklanz, William’s mother in November. Both accidents happened at intersections just one mile apart and in both accidents the drive was thrown from the car to his death.

Difference in last night’s fatal crash was that in the January accident, John Feger fell from his vehicle which rolled on top of him. Last night, Frank was thrown from his car into a corn field and through a fence. Dickinson county Coroner, K. L. Clayton, in a preliminary report, said death was due to concussion of the brain and occurred about 15 minutes after the accident.

The other car involved in the accident was driven by Charles Bartlett of Milford. Bartlett suffered lacerations of the ear and about the head. He was treated by a Milford physician.

According to a report by Doyle Derrickson, Iowa highway patrolman, the Feger car was travelling south and the Bartlett car was going west at the time of the accident. He reported that Bartlett’s vehicle was in the intersection at the time it was hit on the right side by the Feger automobile. The Feger car ran down a bank into a ditch and hit the bank at the far side of the ditch throwing Feger through a fence and into a corn field.

The Bartlett automobile turned around in the road and rolled over an estimate four or five times, coming to rest in a ditch at the west side of the road. Bartlett was alone in his car.

Both cars were badly damaged.

Patrolman Derrickson said that vision at the intersection is obscured by tall corn which grows too close to the intersection. He said drivers in the two cars could not possibly have seen each other until they were within 75 feet of each other.

Services for Feger will be held Monday morning in St. Patrick’s Catholic church in Estherville, with the Rev. Father J. H. Duhigg offering requiem mass at 9:30. Burial will be in St. Patrick’s cemetery in Estherville.

Two rosary services will be recited for the deceased: tomorrow at 9 p.m. in Sandin funeral home and Sunday at 9 p.m. in the Feger brothers’ farm home at Terril.

He was born Feb. 26, in New Berlin, Ill., and received his education in the New Berlin schools. At the age of 18, he came to Iowa and settled first near Spirit Lake, and lived successively north of Jackson, north of Estherville, east of Estherville, five years near Superior, and then moved to Terril where he has farmed in partnership with his brothers, Henry and Carl.

Survivors include his brothers, Carl and Henry of Terril, Walter of Estherville; and two sisters, Mrs. W. W. Lavell of Spirit Lake, and Mrs. George Van Cura of Eau Claire, Wis. (Estherville Daily News, Estherville, IA, August 11, 1950)